J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by snowcrazy2005

Back home nice and safe!!!

What a drive down that was. Having kicked the idea of skiing on the head today. I visited a few friends in various Arc stations and then headed for home. It was snowing when I left Arc 1950 after lunch having been up in Arc 2000 and it was still snowing as I passed La Grange having called into Arc 1600 and Arc 1800 on the way down a few hours later.

I did hear they were not wanting people to go to other ski areas, but that was more about not overloading the lifts in those areas than anything else. The road was only briefly closed in the morning and the buses were running until after lunch. But they stopped around 4pm and the road over to Arc 1950 and 2000 was closed around 5pm until tomorrow morning. You could still get up to the other Les Arcs stations after 5pm, but maybe later tonight they will close the road from BSM as well, although that has not been annonced when I was out in town earlier.

After visiting the other stations I set off again and just after La Grange the snow turned to sleet and then to rain. But there was plenty of snow all the way down to the valley and right into my garden.

The roads were crazy!!! I watched a guy in a 4x4 going to fast coming up the hill straight towards me having misjudged the bend and bounced off the barrier before just gaining control again. Thank god I was going slowly or we would have hit head on. I just stopped and let him pass on my side of the road!! . He was very lucky, if there had not been a barrier he would have gone over the edge and crashed.

I then came across a shuttle bus, still in the ditch and the driver just arriving in a car to start digging it out. The shuttle buses are now stopped until tomorrow morning when they will review the situation. So if you need to use them, you should check.

Up in Arc 2000 there was high banks of snow on both sides of the road. Down towards Arc 1600 the road was still covered in a layer of fresh snow and without winter tyres would have been a nightmare. Even the slush lower down was so deep that your steering locked and you had to take real care on the corners.

I have posted the pics of the drive down in the December folder on my Les Arcs Winter facebook page and you can now also follow me on Twitter. Links below.

If you are driving out do take care. There is more snow on the way. This drive was a real challenge today.

As for the skiing, if the lifts open tomorrow and the weather improves there is going to be some amazing snow out there. Where it has been windy, the conditions could be very difficult, but in the more sheltered areas I hope to find some deep powder.

I will post again tomorrow evening, hopefully with some more pics.

To give you a flavour of what it is like out here right now. I am posting a copy of the report of the last few days below. If you want to read the daily updates, check out my Les Arcs Winter page on facebook and follow me on twitter.

Here is a report of the last few days, enjoy!!

What a last few days. Tuesday the morning started off quite clear and calm. We were able to get up to the Grand Col and play in the fresh powder until lunch time again.

After lunch the predicted storm started to arrive, by 2pm most lifts were closing and only the Bois de l'ours stayed open which gave us access to the black piste nature back down to the bottom of the lift.

For the rest of the afternoon we made various routes down this sheltered face in poor vis, but good snow. Finishing with an untracked run down the closed red in knee deep powder blown into the gully by the ever increasing wind. Finally we stopped at around 4pm when the vis was almost down to zero. What a way to spend my birthday!!

After a great meal and a lively night, went to bed with the storm still going strong outside. They had forecast for the weather to improve for a while on Wednesday morning, but I think someone forgot to tell the weather gods.

I awoke Wednesday to the storm blowing strongly in the Arc 2000 bowl and although they had hoped to open more lifts, by the time we hit the slopes at 10pm only the Marmotte, Pre St Esprit and the beginner lift were still open. Just enough not to give lift pass refunds!!!

Even round the other side there were few lifts open. The new Mont Blanc could not open as it now goes to high and was effected by the wind so we have lost the whole Mont Blanc forest area on windy bad weather days. NOT VERY GOOD planning!! unless you know the secret traverse!!

We went out and made a few runs, but with the wind still gaining speed. We called it quits by 11.30 or so and went in for lunch.

The afternoon has been a complete white out. The group choose to hit the sauna etc and then go to see a movie, then dinner. I must say on a day like this the facilities of Arc 1950 are great.

Today, it has been snowing without any let up since I posted 8 hours ago on my twitter feed. It is still snowing now outside and they say it will keep going all night and tomorrow. They may close the road up to Arc 1950/2000 tonight, that will prove interesting tomorrow.

I have been rather busy or it has been to cold to mess about with taking pics, but I will try and get some tomorrow.

Today we did manage a ski again in the morning for a few hours in near white out conditions, but the powder was good and even going down to Pre St Esprit was fun. Fresh tracks the whole way. As you would guess we had the place mostly to ourselves, not many people out skiing over on the Arc 2000 side.

As those that followed my tweets today saw, we stopped by lunch time and that was it for the day. The whole of Arc 2000 side was shut down by 1.30pm. Even the Cabriolet closed early afternoon. ( https://twitter.com/snowcrazychris )

Tomorrow promises to be more of the same. I will post the daily update in the morning as soon as I get the details.

A white out above the trees, very windy in places, cold, BUT it kept snowing all day!!

Despite the poor vis today, I ended up with quite a big group again this morning to hunt out the best places to ski. The Peisey forest was good as always and we spent the morning over that side before heading back to Arc 1950 for lunch with near zero vis at the top of the Transarc lift.

In the afternoon another group came along and we headed to Arc 1600 and the new Mont Blanc lift. The Cachette red was interesting with fresh snow building on a very icy frozen cruddy base. But the new top of the Mont Blanc blue and the powder fields to the sides back down through the forest to Arc 1600 were very good. Much as it hurts me to say it, they have done a good job with the new pistes and it does not really interfere with the Malgovert red piste nature. The Deux Tetes black piste nature is still there, but needs more snow to make the start safe from rocks. But once over this problem (they seem to have dumped a lot of crud there) the rest of the run seems to be ok still.

Going back up and over into the Arc 2000 bowl was not fun in the late afternoon, cold and windy. But the snow has kept falling, although only lightly now most of the evening and more is promised for tomorrow and later in the week. If this keeps up, the holiday period should be really fun for everyone.

If you are driving out shortly, you will need chains for the car. The roads tonight are quite bad. More news tomorrow.

Remember, if you want to read the daily morning update direct from the pisteurs, plus details of weather and what's on in resort. I will be posting it around 8.30am each morning as long as I get up in time (otherwise could be a bit later). Go to my 'Les Arcs Winter' page on facebook. You do not need to be a member of facebook to view this page, just click the link below.

Another fun day comes to an end. Managed to hit the slopes today with a group of skiers and a snowboarder that were up for most anything.

Started off with a few warm ups on the pistes going up to the Grand Col which had just opened. Most if not all pistes in the Arc 2000 bowl are in very good conditions, but the piste natures all need more snow to save your skis from damage. Once up on the Grand... Col spent of the morning putting fresh tracks down various places and finally a fun line cutting back towards the Aiguille Rouge and Arc 1950 for lunch.

A good lunch in Luigis and then a grand tour of Les Arcs by a route including both on an off piste runs from Arc 1950 all the way to Peisey Vallandry taking in Arc 1600 and Arc 1800 on the way. The new Mont Blanc chair opened and does work well making a quicker journey out of Arc 1600. So as a link lift is is good. But you also get a great view of the off piste which I think is a real shame for our quiet little corner. Oh well!

Although still closed we also skied the new piste at the Peisey end and all the way back to the Vallandry lift which allows you to miss out the stones down into the Peisey lift.

Overall today, with most lifts now open, it showed how much fun can be had in Les Arcs in the first week of the season and more snow is forecast for tomorrow and the next few days. We shall see.

Other good news, the ESF is now in Arc 1950 with a new ski school office. They have a full range of options which link into the school in Arc 2000 with the added bonus that they guarantee all English speaking clients will get an English speaking Instructor, whether for private or group lessons. they are also cheaper than Spirit 1950 school in all areas. Other discounts are being discussed and I will post more info about this once I here.

The link for booking online is currently still through the Arc 2000 ESF office:

http://esf-arc-2000.com/index-en.html

Today I have moved up to Arc 1950 where I am the Official Ski/Snowboard Host for the Festival de Cinema Europeen des Arcs. I had to add that as it sounds very posh!!

http://www.facebook.com/festivaldecinemaeuropeendesarcs

For anyone thinking of coming out, this is a great week to be here. Now the snow has arrived most areas will open (see next post) and the films are interesting to see and quite cheap.

Did not manage to get out on my skis or board today as was to busy , but there is loads of snow about and if you have a quick scan of all the web cams in the links section, you will have a good idea of the amount of snow around.

What you cannot tell is that the wind picked up and made some areas very dangerous due to wind slab and the temperature is up and down like a yoyo today so there are going to be very mixed conditions tomorrow, but I think we will still find some great places to ride.

If it stays cold we are in for some good riding over the next week as the base consolidates and new snow arrives. Fingers crossed that it snows and does not rain as happened last year.

More info about changes up in resort stations and what's opening this weekend to follow shortly.

If there is anyone coming out his week, do let me know. You can always PM me on here or on facebook. We can meet for a beer, even if we do not go out in the snow.

Yesterday I had another little trip. Was really fun. Here is the report.

Another trip into the back country, this time with a scenic photo shoot in mind.

Blue sky, fresh snow, an empty mountain and no tracks in sight. What more could I wish for.

As I shall be based in Arc 1950 as a ski host for the Film Festival VIP's again starting from tomorrow I thought it would be fun on such a nice day to get high and look across to Les Arcs ski domain and get some photos of the whole area.

Time to head up to La Rosiere and into one of the back valleys looking across to Les Arcs.

What a great day. As always with La Rosiere you need to choose where you ski quite carefully to avoid wind slab, but there are some great off piste areas if you plan your route. As my idea for today was to get good photos plus finding some off piste. I headed high on skins and got onto the ridge away from the pistes. If only the lifts were working to get me half way up. Oh well!

Having made the ridge, I had a photo stop and then headed into the valley. More untracked snow with great vis, but did give myself a little scare when the snow started to make strange noises. Ops!!! Time to get onto safer ground quickly. All alone on unstable snow is not a good place to be.

(Remember folks, like they say on TV, do not do this yourself. Well that covers me anyway. As I do enjoy being out in these places alone sometimes it is a risk I am willing to take. Please do not copy what I do unless you really know what you are doing. Ok I think that's enough, now back to the report.)

Once heading into the valley, on a very safe line I skied down towards the forest, stopping on the way for more photos and then finally arrived back at La Rosiere after a bit more skinning. Once I got away from the wind effected unstable stuff the snow was great. Managed to put fresh tracks everywhere I went and really enjoyed the calm peace of the place before the lifts open on Saturday.

Looking across at Les Arcs ski domain. The runs down to Villaroger are complete and they are getting them ready for skiing. The whole of the Arc 2000 bowl looks great and the off piste into the national park looks very tempting, but I think it might be very unstable right now.

Here is one of the photos, the others can be seen on my Les Arcs Winter page. Link below.

Iceman, thanks for the help posting the pic, but I think one is enough since they have to be hosted somewhere. People might as well go to the 'Les Arcs Winter' page to see the rest.

The heavans have opened and it has been dumping down for two days and still snowing right now higher up. Here is a mini trip report of some fun I had today.

A Trip to Remember, Les Arcs to Bourg!

What a fun day it turned out to be. When I looked outside this morning. last nights dump did not let me down. There was loads of snow, up to my knees as I cleared the path. Did a few jobs then time to go and play.

Tried out the downhill skis with the step-in 'add on' touring bindings. If you have never tried this system, it is fun, but you do need to have OK balance and watch your knees. (Ask at Polaire Star Ski and snowboard rentals by the funicular if you want to find out more about these, they turn your normal downhill skis into touring skis.)

After a good warm up, my first time on skis since last winter. Had some lunch then made up my mind to go out even if the vis up the mountain was bad. The snow had finished falling a few hours before, but the mountains were cloaked in cloud and fog getting ready for the next dump tonight I hoped.

Managed to hitch a ride up the mountain to Les Arcs 1600. The higher slopes were not visible and with so much snow about (around 30 - 40cm, I guess) it was better to take a safer option. There is a great route back down to Bourg so time to go. After 2 hours or so of a mix between downhill and traversing I made it from Les Arcs 1600 right back to the lake in Bourg, only taking my skis off to cross the roads and to avoid the odd fence or tree.

Really fun. Knee deep powder, maybe even more at the start. Then slowly as I got lower crossing the meadows and passing farm buildings to avoid the forest where possible, the snow started to get heavier as the vis improved. Even below half way the snow was still Ok and nearly up to my knees right until I reached the lake. The final meadow smelled of cattle, it was still green fields three days ago, but now a white untracked carpet.

I did not do this route last season. What a treat today was, fresh tracks the whole way, nobody else around, just what skiing is all about. Might even do it again tomorrow in better vis I hope. What a great way to start a season. All alone in the white expanse of the mountainside above Bourg.



Here is one photo, more can be found on my Les Arcs Winter page of this trip and conditions last night, link below. Hope you enjoy them.